Change of strategy a must for tackling issues of serious public concern
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Shamsher Chowdhury
MOST governments since our independence have undermined and underestimated the intelligence of the common man. Naïve as they may appear, they are quite capable of understanding the issues at stake and their long- and short-term implications. Besides, the people of today, compared to the 80s and the 90s, are quite different in their outlook. They are politically more conscious and more mature, a fact that our political management gurus fail to appreciate. On the contrary, they take the people for granted. There are already signs that the people would reject any move to establish 'dynastic rule' in running the affairs of the state. The two major political parties should realise that despite the fact that they ruled the country for nearly two decades or so, either of them is yet to represent the majority of the people in the true sense of the term. Frankly, as matters stand today neither the BNP nor the Awami league represents actually anybody except their respective party cadres and in-house supporters. Matters have been further complicated due to the involvement of the ruling party in some petty squabbles maligning the opposition and that too on the floor of the parliament. This was quite uncalled for. Let us face it, the ruling party came into power with an unprecedented majority and thus they had no reason to feel insecure.
In view of the prevailing political environment, it seems that the overall policy and strategic interventions by the ruling party in tackling such volatile issues like the power, water, food prices and gas lack wisdom and foresight.
Look at the power situation, the government has now decided to go for contracting companies in order to set up power generating units. It is baffling why the government did not consider the option of refurbishing some of the currently out of operation units through import of spares on an urgent basis. The job of repair and refurbishing could very well be undertaken by our local engineers and technicians.
Turn to the aggravating water crisis, things could have considerably improved by now had there been proper planning. Fifteen months should have been a sufficient time to address this issue more pragmatically and provide succor to the suffering masses.
With regard to checking and controlling the rising prices of essentials, all that the ruling party has been able is to come up with an explanation that: "it is due to the syndicate of some business houses and that the prices are within the tolerable limits of the people". The government has also totally messed up the law and order situation.
I have no clue as to the problems faced by the government with regard to the deteriorating state of supply of gas, both for industrial and household consumption. Is it the distribution system? Is it that we do not have adequate gas resources/reserves? Or, is it because of the failure to extract gas from the depository of gas fields that lay beneath the soil? There is an impression that given the right strategy, much improvement of the gas situation too could have been achieved during the past 15 months or so.
There are a host of other issues. The problems have been highlighted here not to malign the government but to draw its attention to some critical issues through constructive criticism.
It is high time the government realigned its focus. It should talk less and work more.
The government should seriously consider revising and realigning its priorities and bring about a qualitative change in its strategy of interventions. In order to do that effectively, the administration has to be honest and upfront.
MOST governments since our independence have undermined and underestimated the intelligence of the common man. Naïve as they may appear, they are quite capable of understanding the issues at stake and their long- and short-term implications. Besides, the people of today, compared to the 80s and the 90s, are quite different in their outlook. They are politically more conscious and more mature, a fact that our political management gurus fail to appreciate. On the contrary, they take the people for granted. There are already signs that the people would reject any move to establish 'dynastic rule' in running the affairs of the state. The two major political parties should realise that despite the fact that they ruled the country for nearly two decades or so, either of them is yet to represent the majority of the people in the true sense of the term. Frankly, as matters stand today neither the BNP nor the Awami league represents actually anybody except their respective party cadres and in-house supporters. Matters have been further complicated due to the involvement of the ruling party in some petty squabbles maligning the opposition and that too on the floor of the parliament. This was quite uncalled for. Let us face it, the ruling party came into power with an unprecedented majority and thus they had no reason to feel insecure.
In view of the prevailing political environment, it seems that the overall policy and strategic interventions by the ruling party in tackling such volatile issues like the power, water, food prices and gas lack wisdom and foresight.
Look at the power situation, the government has now decided to go for contracting companies in order to set up power generating units. It is baffling why the government did not consider the option of refurbishing some of the currently out of operation units through import of spares on an urgent basis. The job of repair and refurbishing could very well be undertaken by our local engineers and technicians.
Turn to the aggravating water crisis, things could have considerably improved by now had there been proper planning. Fifteen months should have been a sufficient time to address this issue more pragmatically and provide succor to the suffering masses.
With regard to checking and controlling the rising prices of essentials, all that the ruling party has been able is to come up with an explanation that: "it is due to the syndicate of some business houses and that the prices are within the tolerable limits of the people". The government has also totally messed up the law and order situation.
I have no clue as to the problems faced by the government with regard to the deteriorating state of supply of gas, both for industrial and household consumption. Is it the distribution system? Is it that we do not have adequate gas resources/reserves? Or, is it because of the failure to extract gas from the depository of gas fields that lay beneath the soil? There is an impression that given the right strategy, much improvement of the gas situation too could have been achieved during the past 15 months or so.
There are a host of other issues. The problems have been highlighted here not to malign the government but to draw its attention to some critical issues through constructive criticism.
It is high time the government realigned its focus. It should talk less and work more.
The government should seriously consider revising and realigning its priorities and bring about a qualitative change in its strategy of interventions. In order to do that effectively, the administration has to be honest and upfront.